Paris wheat prices jumped this week. Nearby wheat was at €207/t on Friday afternoon, while the September price was at €186.25/t.

The increase in prices may be in part due to a forecast by the International Grains Council (IGC). The IGC’s April forecast estimated global grain production to be down by 5 million tonnes from the month before.

The IGC now estimates global grain production at 2,218 million tonnes of grain for the coming season.

Import duty increased

On May 6, the EU Commission once again increased its import duties on maize, sorghum and rye. The duty is now €10.40/t. The duty is automatically implemented according to an automatic mechanism used to calculate duties.

An import duty of €5.27/t was implemented on April 27 by the European Commission.

The import duty is based on the difference between a European reference price and the world benchmark for maize – the US price calculated as the CIF (costs, insurance and freight included) maize price.

US planting going well

US farmers are having a better planting season this year than in 2019 when wet weather played havoc with planting.

This season planting is well ahead of schedule. Corn planting was estimated at 51% on May 3, compared to the average for the time of year – 39%. Soybean planting was estimated at 23% on May 3. This compares to the average of 11% for the time of year.

Also Read: US planting figures well ahead of wet 2019

Grain markets

Glanbia released green grain prices on Tuesday, May 5, of this week. Green wheat for harvest 2020, excluding any Glanbia bonuses, was at €156/t, while green barley was at €133/t. This was down from the week before when green wheat was at €157/t and green barley was at €135/t.

Spot prices for barley on the continent were at €161/t (feed barley, delivered Rouen), while the spot price for Free-On-Board (FOB) malting barley (Planet) was at €168/t on the same day.

The FOB Creil (Planet) 2020 price finished at €167/t on Wednesday, May 6. The average price of the FOB Creil every Wednesday from mid April to mid September will be calculated and used as Boortmalt’s harvest price for brewing barley.